MTG Salvation

I always try and run generals I don't see others playing with locally, so thought Horobi, death's wail would be interesting. The idea is to clear the board and steal the choicest corpses.

I've categories the cards main functions in the deck though obviously some will overlap in their functionality, staff of nin being both a source of card draw and a trigger for Horobi for instance.

Wanting a critique before I get this in paper. Obviously it's pretty casual and I just like playing big flashy cards, my main concern though is my average cmc is high (3.86), do I have enough ramp/card draw into ramp, to cope with it? Or do I need to cut some big boys (suggestions welcome) for more card draw/ramp or cheaper alternatives of the same ability.

The biggest mistake I think a lot of people make when building Horobi is the inclusion of cards that do nothing at all unless Horobi is out. In your case, there's Sorceress Queen, Retribution of the Ancients, Liquinetal coating, Staff of Nin and Hex Parasite. Touch of Darkness and Tetzimoc, Primal Death get a pass because they're just too good with Horobi.

Hex Parasite can actually be quite useful if you build around it though. Specifically, Sagas. The Eldest Reborn and Phyrexian Scriptures both become permanent threats when you can remove counters from them at will to continuously get the effect you want. I also highly recommend Thrull Parasite, which performs as a Horobi enabler, a Saga fixer, and a nice source of incidental life drain via Extort. My other preferred Horobi activators are Scuttlemutt, Shadow Alley Denizen, and Profane Command due to their standalone utility.

Also, Fated Return is a great spell to cast on Horobi so he/she isn't quite as fragile. Indestructible isn't total protection but it makes sure Horobi doesn't die to a random Pyroblast.